Toyo Eiwa Jogakko As a Site of International Exchange: the Experiences of Three Canadian Methodist Women

View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE Toyo Eiwa Jogakko as a Site of International Exchange: The Experiences of Three Canadian Methodist Women Toyo Eiwa Jogakko as a Site of International Exchange: The Experiences of Three Canadian Methodist Women Patricia Sippel＊要約本稿はカナダ・メソジスト教会婦人伝道会社に派遣され、東洋英和女学校の初期を形成した三人の女性伝道者たちの異文化交流に焦点を当てる。創立者であるマーサー・J・カートメル（1845-1945）の滞在期間は病気により短いものとなった。イライザ・スペンサー・ラージ（1855-1933）は、校舎において目の前で夫を殺害され、後には日本におけるカナダ・メソジスト伝道運動を脅かすほどの闘いに挑むこととなる。そしてアグネス・ウィントミュート・コーツ（1864-1945）は、当初伝道のために精力的な活動をするも、来る戦時期には長きにわたる疎外と孤独な死が彼女を待ち受けていた。書簡、報告書、議事録を紐解いていくことで、日本という生活環境そして布教の地でカナダ人伝道者たちが経験した国際交流の複雑さを素描する。キーワード：婦人伝道会社、カナダ・メソジスト教会、国際交流、女子教育 Keywords：Woman’s Missionary Society , Methodist Church of Canada, international exchange, girls’ education ＊東洋英和女学院大学国際社会学部教授 Professor, Faculty of Social Science, Toyo Eiwa University 1 I. Introduction in the 1920s, the question of when and how On December 27, 1882, Martha Julia Cartmell leadership would be handed over to the “native of Hamilton, Ontario, arrived in Yokohama as the teachers” emerged. And from the 1930s, forced first overseas representative of the newly found- compliance with the ultra-nationalistic and mili- ed Woman’s Missionary Society of the Methodist tarist policies of the Japanese state threatened Church of Canada. Her mission was to advance Toyo Eiwa’s survival as a Christian institution. the spread of Christianity in Japan by focusing But beyond these issues, which unfolded in on the needs of women and girls. Less than two ways that mirrored Japan’s development as a years later and with the help of Canadian and modern state, were the complex, more intimate, Japanese Methodists already active in the Tokyo and probably more deeply felt interactions expe- area, Cartmell had taken an important step rienced by the Canadian missionary women in toward accomplishing her goal. In October 1884, their Japanese living and work environment. she opened a girls’ school, Toyo Eiwa Jogakko, Even among those who enjoyed long and pro- in the Azabu district of Tokyo. Set thus in ductive careers as teachers and administrators motion by the Christianizing aspirations of at Toyo Eiwa, the personal and professional Methodist women in a distant part of the globe, challenges were enormous. Many struggled to Toyo Eiwa was from its earliest years an educa- maintain their health and a sense of wellbeing tional and even a financial success, attracting while engaging with unfamiliar, or unacceptable enrolments from the families of Japan’s political cultural norms. Some were embroiled in a near- and cultural elite while at the same time reach- disastrous conflict with male missionaries. A few ing out to poorer children. Through the early felt the fear of physical danger. There was even decades of the 20th century, the school devel- rare disenchantment with the ideals that had oped a program that included elementary, high brought them to Japan. These experiences of school, and college preparatory departments. It Canadian women living in an international envi- gained attention for the high social status of its ronment were interlaced with issues of gender, pupils, for its progressive, Western-style cur- status, and religious and professional commit- riculum, for its modern facilities, and for the ment in ways that go beyond any simple defini- international environment created and sustained tion of international exchange. by the Canadian women who followed Cartmell This paper will examine Toyo Eiwa Jogakko as as missionary educators. a site of international exchange, focusing on the While Toyo Eiwa’s international character was experiences – some private, some all too public a crucial element of its success in the first half- – of three Canadian women missionaries who century of its history, that same internationalism shaped the first half-century of its history: also produced challenges and stresses. In the Martha Cartmell (1845-1945), the school’s school’s earliest years, Japanese staff struggled founder, whose time at Toyo Eiwa was cut short to implement unfamiliar educational content by psychological illness; Eliza Spencer Large and methods in an environment of strict Christ- (1855-1933), whose husband was murdered ian evangelism. Later, Japanese and Canadian before her eyes in their residence and who later school administrators had to adjust to the engaged in a rancorous battle between male and increasingly rigid demands of the modern Japan- female missionaries that threatened the success ese educational system. As the school matured of the Methodist missionary enterprise in Japan; 2 Toyo Eiwa Jogakko as a Site of International Exchange: The Experiences of Three Canadian Methodist Women and Agnes Wintemute Coates (1864-1945), 1925, when the formation of the United Church whose early vigorous efforts on behalf of the of Canada ended the WMS as a separate organi- mission were followed by long years of alien- zation. During those 44 years, the WMS ation and a lonely death in wartime Japan. The employed some 307 paid representatives: some paper draws on materials in the Toyo Eiwa 81 were appointed to the Japan mission, includ- Jogakuin archives1, on documents in the United ing Toyo Eiwa; another 81 were sent to the West Church of Canada Archives in Toronto2, on offi- China mission based in Szechwan Province; and cial histories of Toyo Eiwa Jogakuin3 and the about 142 worked in Canadian “home” missions Methodist missionary movement4 and on the located in Quebec, Ontario, British Columbia work of Canadian historians of gender and reli- and Alberta.8 gion.5 In each of these sources, the most reveal- The specific focus directed by the WMS on ing insights come from the letters, reports and Japan grew out of the activities of the broader deliberations of the missionaries and their Methodist community in Canada, and particular- Methodist supporters in Canada. ly the decision of the Wesleyan Methodist Church to focus on Japan as its first overseas II. The Woman’s Missionary Society in mission field from 1873.9 Led by Davidson Mac- Japan (1881-1925) donald and George Cochran, the Canadian The foundation, financial support, and leader- Methodist mission achieved significant success- ship of Toyo Eiwa Jogakko were the first and es in evangelizing young Japanese men during best-known international achievements of the the 1870s, but they felt hampered by the Woman’s Missionary Society (WMS) of the absence of women missionaries who could do Methodist Church of Canada. The WMS was the “work among the women that only women founded in 1881 in Hamilton, Ontario, in could do.”10 In the context of such appeals, it response to a growing wave of enthusiasm was not surprising that, of the four mission among Methodist women for active involvement activities discussed and approved at the inau- in the evangelical work of the Church, both at gural WMS meeting of November 1881, the sin- home and abroad.6 After general agreement to gle overseas proposal read specifically: “That we form a missionary society was reached at a engage to support a lady missionary to Japan.”11 meeting of the Central Missionary Board in June Just over a year later, Martha Cartmell arrived in 1880, a planning meeting held in April 1881 Japan to begin that work, and within three determined that the objectives of the society years, Toyo Eiwa Jogakko was in operation. would be “to engage the efforts of Christian Building on the success of Toyo Eiwa, the WMS women in the evangelization of heathen women founded a girls’ school at Shizuoka in 1887 and and children; to aid in sustaining female Mission- in Kofu, Yamanashi Prefecture, two years later. aries and Teachers, or other special laborers, in Other short-lived enterprises included an foreign or home fields; and to raise funds for the orphanage and two industrial schools in Kanaza- work.”7 Evangelical activities, at home and wa Prefecture and a school and kindergarten in abroad, were approved at the foundation meet- Nagano Prefecture. Wherever they worked, the ing of the WMS held at the Wesleyan Female WMS representatives held Bible and Sunday College in Hamilton on November 9, 1981. They school classes, helped the poor, and tended to remained the main focus of the society until the sick, striving in all activities to foster a 3 “Japanese Christian womanhood.”12 sentatives.15 At the society’s inaugural meeting, WMS missionaries, recruited through personal members contributed more than a thousand dol- recommendations and advertisements in church lars in 25-dollar life memberships. As its mem- publications, were required to be single, aged bership increased – to 26,741 in 1906 and 61,049 between 22 and 30 years, in good health, and in 1925 – so did its fundraising capacity. In its willing to serve for at least five years.13 (From lifetime, the WMS raised a total of more than 6.5 the mid-1890s, the minimum age was raised to million dollars; it had well over a million dollars 25.) Applicants who met the basic requirements in assets at dissolution in 1925. Although techni- were further screened by the society’s Board of cally subject to the General Board, the women Managers for their educational qualifications, guarded their decision-making powers and their work experience, moral character, and spiritual money carefully. Consequently, they were able commitment. After the establishment of the to expand operations in Japan, while paying rel- Methodist Training School in Toronto in 1894, atively generous salaries to the representatives. all prospective missionaries were required to For those stationed in Japan, annual salaries study there for at least a term. According to ranged between 500 and 750 dollars in the early Gagan, WMS missionary personnel were, on years, rising to between 750 and 900 dollars in average, significantly better educated than their the 1920s. Gagan notes that a missionary career Canadian peers, and the best educated were offered economic independence for unmarried, normally sent to Japan in consideration of the educated, middle-class women, who in some high cultural level of the Japanese and the elite cases sent back a portion of their earnings to status of the Eiwa schools.14 By the turn of the support family members in Canada.

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